By: Esmeralda Kale, LaRay Denzer, Gene Kannenberg, Jr….
From the very beginning of African history, many women have acted as queens, assuming roles of power and authority. In ancient times women were often corulers with men, but sometimes became the sole ruler. Besides Egypt, queens also appear in centers of female authority, like Nubia/Meroe, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Northern Nigeria, Angola/Congo, Senegal, and some Yoruba kingdoms in Nigeria.
Queens have also acted as protectors of their kingdoms where they have led armies against invasion. Some of this heroism has become part of popular culture. Nationalist movements continue to use these women as symbols of resistance, e.g. Queen Nzinga of Ndongo and Matamba and the legendary Queen Amina of Zazzau. Even today, their stories are being rounded out by academics and other scholars. Since the Roman invasion of North Africa, these queens have been at the forefront of anti-imperialist resistance. These leaders serve as symbols of endurance and excellence for young women today.
HATSHEPSUT, c.1479 BCE–c.1458 BCE
The second confirmed Egyptian woman pharaoh proved women could be powerful rulers. Considered one of Egypt’s greatest pharaohs—man or woman—she reigned in her own right and attained unprecedented power for a woman, obtaining the throne from her stepson, adopting the full titles and regalia of a pharaoh.
Hatshepsut brought great wealth and artistry to her land. She sponsored one of Egypt’s most successful trading expeditions, bringing back gold, ebony, and incense from Punt. She secured her legacy by building structures that still stand today. She added two-hundred-foot-tall obelisks at the great temple complex at Karnak, one still intact. And she built the mortuary Temple of Deir el Bahri, a structure with several rows of columns in front, where she would eventually be buried.
Hatshepsut was usually depicted as a man, complete with muscles and a beard, as was the artistic tradition for pharaohs. But historians know the truth: She always made sure the art included a reference to being a woman, such as “Daughter of Re” or “His Majesty, Herself.” When she died in 1458 B.C., Egypt would not see as powerful a female ruler for another 1,400 years, when Cleopatra VII came to the throne.
AMINA OF ZAZZAU (ZARIA), 1576–1610
Queen Amina was a warrior queen of the Zazzau kingdom, an ancient kingdom that is now part of present-day Nigeria. A skilled marksman and horse rider, Queen Amina led her army of 20,000-foot soldiers and 1,000 cavalry troops into battle. For more than thirty-four years she waged war on her neighbors in her quest to expand her kingdom.
She also worked to improve her kingdom’s infrastructure, building walls and ramparts around cities to protect against invaders. These walls have survived in parts of present-day Zaria and are known as “ganuwar Amina” [Amina’s walls].
Legend has it that she that she took a new lover in every town she marched through, each of whom was said to meet the same unfortunate fate in the morning: “her brief bridegroom was beheaded so that none should live to tell the tale.”
Under Queen Amina’s rule, Zazzau became the center of both the prosperous North-South Saharan and the East-West Sudan trades.
NZINGA ANA DE SOUSA NZINGHA MBANDE (c.1583-1663)
Nzinga ruled as queen of the Ambundu Kingdoms of Ndongo (1624–1663) and Matamba (1631– 1663), located in present-day northern Angola. Her father, Ngola Kilombo Kia Kasenda, was the king of Ndongo. The military and political training she received as a child made her a formidable opponent against the Portuguese empire. In 1624, she assumed power over Ndongo after the suicide of her brother Mbandi, and she fended off the slave trade and war with the Portuguese. In 1631, she conquered the Kingdom of Matamba, and then skillfully formed an alliance with the Dutch East India Company in 1641. Subsequently she married the warlord Kasanje to strengthen her position against the Portuguese. Nzinga continued to fight the Portuguese until she negotiated a peace treaty in 1656. Long after her death, she inspired the successful 20th century armed resistance against the Portuguese that resulted in an independent Angola in 1975.
QUEEN RANAVALONA I OF MADAGASCAR (1778–1861).
During her 33-year reign, Queen Ranavalona created Madagascar as an independent state. She defied the encroachment of European colonialism, protecting her borders from Britain and France and eliminating the influence of the Church Missionary Society within Madagascar. She implemented forced labor to develop infrastructure. Prisoners could prove their innocence or guilt by ingesting the poisonous nut from the Tangena shrub. While often seen by historians as harsh, Ranavalona’s rule maintained the cultural and political sovereignty of her nation.
TAITU OF ETHIOPIA (1883–1913) Taitu, Ethiopia’s strong queen (1883–1889) and empress (1889–1913), was an adept diplomat who played a significant role in stopping Italian imperialist plans for Ethiopia. She was a key player in the conflict over the Treaty of Wuchale with Italy. Discovering that the treaty’s Italian language version made Ethiopia an Italian protectorate (a significant clause left out of the Amharic language version), she tore up this “agreement.” When Italy invaded from its Eritrean colony in 1896, Taitu marched north with the emperor and the imperial army, commanding a force of cannoneers. At the Siege of Mek’ele, the empress had her men cut off the water supply to a fortress full of Italians, who surrendered ten days later. It is said that Empress Taytu’s battalion included female warriors— each escorted by men bearing red parasols to shield the women warriors from the sun. A month later at the Battle of Adwa, she and her husband each led their own battalion on the front lines and the Italian forces were decisively defeated. This victory was the most significant of any African army battling European colonialism. Menelik II and Taytu Betul were temporarily in possession of 4,000 prisoners of war.
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Esmeralda Kale, the George & Mary LeCron Foster Curator of the Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies; LaRay Denzer, editor-in-chief of PAS newsletter, and Gene Kannenberg, Jr, research and media assistant of the Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies.